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Old joints

Afternoon everyone, Charlie is now 6, but it seems like he's 16 !!. His legs (especially his back legs) seem arthritic, when we go for a walk he ends up limping, when he gets wet, he ends up limping, when he lies down for a period of time and gets up, you've guessed he's limping. Should I invest in some Bob Martin conditioning tablets or does anyone else know of something better.?

I think he needs to see the vet to establish what is going on, this doesn't sound right for a dog of 6. There are lots of different causes for intermittent lameness, including luxating patella, hip dysplasia, arthritis and sadly, Syringomyelia [please familiarise yourself with the symptoms of the condition from cavaliermatters.org http://sm.cavaliertalk.com/http://cavalierhealth.org/syringomyelia.htm as your vet may not be familiar with it]

I don't think this is something you can just try giving conditioning tablets for without a proper diagnosis, to be limping to that degree suggests he is in pain.

Following a trip to the vet, it may be worth considering a joint supplement, something with Glucosamine etc

Thankyou for the info, I'm pretty sure its not SM, theres none of the symptoms, he's always been a jump up on the furniture dog and I read somewhere that its not good for cavvies to do that so we try as much as we can to keep him on the floor nowadays.

I would check with vet. Back leg issues make me think patella problems.

You could try Dasaquin or Cosequin -- joint supplement tablets. I give 1/2 tablet per day to Bosco, and it seems to help a lot.

I know that Bosco has low grade patella issues and my plan is to carefully monitor him as he ages. I would prefer to avoid surgery. As such, it's important to keep his weight low, to avoid addl stress on the joints and I supplement with Dasaquin and some chinese herbs. It seems to be doing the trick.

Skippy started out with what -looked- like a slight limp in his front legs at the age of 4, but only after taking him to the vet did we really figure out what the underlying issue was. Here is the thread I had made at the time --

Thankyou for the info, I'm pretty sure its not SM, theres none of the symptoms, he's always been a jump up on the furniture dog and I read somewhere that its not good for cavvies to do that so we try as much as we can to keep him on the floor nowadays.

I'm sorry to say this but limping after exercise and when getting up can be an SM symptom as well as being due to HD or patella problem. The fact there are so many signs that mirror other problems is one of the things that makes SM so hard to diagnose.

Margaret C

Cavaliers......Faith, The Ginger Tank and Woody.
Japanese Chins.... Dandy, Benny, Bridgette and Hana.
Remembered with love......... Tommy Tuppence and Fonzi

Agree that your dog very badly needs to see a vet -- this level of limping indicates a lot of pain and it would be cruel to leave it. It is extremely unlikely to be arthritis in a 6 year old -- if it is arthritis the only type would be of a more serious level that definitely needs vet care and pain relief as your description implies quite sever pain. Avoiding exercise isn't an really an acceptable alternative.

Please be sure to get your cavalier to a vet as soon as you possible can and get the source of pain diagnosed. As Margaret says, it could be a joint issue like luxatting patella -- which is very painful and does need to be addressed. Or it could be possibly SM as the limping could actually be coordination problems or the limb pain that some dogs gets with CM. Whatever the cause -- we know you love your cavalier deeply and will not want him to suffer like this any further.

I would second what others have said, but on a practical level, instead of trying to keep Charlie on the floor, you could get him some steps to enable him to still get up on the settee etc. Hyperdrug, the online pharmacy, do good lightweight ones at a reasonable price. My dogs (both with SM) find them really helpful.

Kate, Oliver and Aled

PS Whereabouts are you in the West Midlands? I live in Coventry, so if you wanted someone to talk to about Charlie's problems, I'm sure we could meet up somewhere.